System and method for displaying the history of a user&#39;s interaction with a voice application

ABSTRACT

As a user interacts with a voice application, a history of the prompts played to the user and the users responses are displayed to the user. The displayed prompts and displayed responses could be summaries of the prompts and responses, or they could be full transcriptions of the prompts and responses. A user may be able to select a prompt or response in the history to return to a certain point in the voice application. It may be possible for a user to save a history of the interactions that occurred when a voice application was performed, and to recall the history to continue on from a selected location in the history.

This application claims priority to the filing date of U.S. ProvisionalApplication No. 61/157,337, which was filed on Mar. 4, 2009, thecontents of which are hereby incorporated by reference. This applicationis also a continuation-in-part of U.S. application Ser. No. 11/514,116,which was filed on Sep. 1, 2006, which itself claims priority to thefiling date of U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/712,808, which wasfiled on Sep. 1, 2005, the contents of both of which are herebyincorporated by reference.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The invention relates to systems and methods for displaying thetranscribed history of a user's interaction with a voice application toaid the user in interacting with the voice application. The invention isalso related to providing a user with a multimodal interface forinteracting with a voice application.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

There are various existing computer and telephony systems that providevoice services to users. These voice services can be speech recognitionand touchtone enabled. Examples of such services include voice mail,voice activated dialing, customer care services, and the provision ofaccess to Internet content via telephone.

Interactive voice response (IVR) systems are another example of suchvoice services. IVRs are in widespread use for a variety of purposes.Some of the most common uses are to direct a telephone call to theappropriate party within a business, and to provide information to auser.

During a typical IVR session, the user is presented with a first menu ofchoices by having the IVR system play an audio recording setting forththe menu choices. The user makes a selection by pressing a key on atelephone keypad, or by speaking a number or word corresponding to thechoice. Often, the system will then present the user with another menuof choices by playing a second audio recording, and the user will makeanother choice. Eventually, the user is provided with information,usually by playing another audio clip, or the IVR system takes an actionbased on the user's choices. For instance, the action might be toconnect the user to the most appropriate customer service representativefor a business.

Some IVR systems are configured so that one of the menu choices at eachlevel is to go backwards one step in the menu hierarchy. If the userfinds that the menu choices he is currently presented with do notfurther his goal, going backwards one step, and then advancing to adifferent menu can be helpful.

Unfortunately, if the user is presented with multiple menus, it is oftendifficult for the user to remember much of what came before. And thiscan make it difficult to navigate through the menus. Also, if the userdiscovers that he must go backwards multiple steps to get to a menu thatserves his needs, the process can become time consuming and frustrating.

FIG. 1 shows an partial example of the menus that a user might bepresented with by an IVR system. This example is an IVR that might beused by a financial services institution, such as a bank. This IVRsystem is used to provide a user with information about one of hisaccounts, to connect the user the most appropriate customer servicerepresentative, or to enable the user to accomplish certain functions,such as making a mortgage payment.

If a user calls the financial institution, he would first hear audiomenu 1.0.0.0.0. The audio menu would state that if the caller wants toobtain information about a bank account, he should press the 1 key, ifthe user wants to obtain information about a mortgage, the user shouldpress the 2 key, if the user wants to obtain information aboutsecurities, he should press the 3 key, and if the user wants to speakwith an operator, the user should press the 4 key.

If the user wants to obtain information about a bank account, he wouldpress the 1 key, and the IVR would then play audio menu 1.1.0.0.0. Inthis audio menu, the user would be presented with numbered options thatallow him to obtain information about a checking account, informationabout a savings account, information about an IRA account, informationabout a certificate of deposit, or the option to return to the lastmenu.

If the user selects option 1, to obtain information about a checkingaccount, the user would be presented with audio menu 1.1.1.0.0. In thisaudio menu, the user would be asked to input a checking account number.

After entering the checking account number, the user would be presentedwith audio menu 1.1.1.1.0. In this audio menu, the user would be hearthe current account balance. Then, the user would be presented withnumbered options that would allow the user to transfer money to adifferent account, speak with a representative, or return to the lastmenu. If the user pressed the key that takes the user back to the lastmenu, the user would be able to enter the number of a different checkingaccount, and thereby obtain the balance information for that otheraccount.

If the user selected option 1, to transfer money to another account, theuser would be presented with audio menu 1.1.1.1.1. In this audio menu,the user would first be asked to enter the amount of money to betransferred. After entering the amount, the user would be asked to enterthe account number to which the money is to be transferred. Afterentering the amount, the system would play an audio summary of thetransfer action, so that the user can confirm that the information hasbeen correctly entered. Next, the system would ask if the user wishes toproceed with the transaction. If so, the system would make the transfer,then play the user a confirmation number.

The IVR illustrated in FIG. 1 is not intended to be complete, and itwill be obvious that many of the options are not fully illustrated.However, the partial example given in FIG. 1 does serve to illustratethat such IVRs can become quite complex, and include multiple layers ofmenus. It is therefore no surprise that the users can forget what menuscame before, let alone what their options are within each menu.

The ability to provide voice services that can interpret and processspoken input from users, such as in the IVRs described above, has beenquite limited by the nature of the systems that provide such services.In the known systems that provide voice services using relativelycomplex speech recognition processing, the voice applications areperformed on high end computing devices located at a central location.Voice Application processing requires a high end centralized computersystem because these systems are provisioned to support manysimultaneous users.

Because complex voice application processing must be provided using ahigh end computer system at a central location, and because users arealmost never co-located with the high end computer system, a user isalmost always connected to the central computer system via a telephonecall. The call could be made using a typical telephone or cell phoneover the PSTN, or the call might be placed via a VoIP-type (Skype, SIP)connection. Regardless, the user must establish a dedicated, persistentvoice connection to the central computer system to access the voiceservices.

In a typical prior art architecture for a centralized voice servicesplatform, the speech recognition functions are performed at a centralcomputer system. A user telephone is used to place a telephone call tothe central voice services platform via a telephone network. Thetelephone network could be a traditional PSTN, or a VoIP based system.Either way, the user would have to establish the telephone call to thecentral voice service platform via a telephone carrier.

The prior art centralized voice services platforms, which depend on atelephony infrastructure for connection to users, are highly inflexiblefrom a deployment standpoint. The configurations of hardware andsoftware are all concentrated on a small number of high end servers.These configurations are technically complex and hard to monitor,manage, and change as business conditions dictate. Furthermore, thedeployment of existing IVR system architectures, and the subsequentprovisioning of users and voice applications to them, requires extensiveconfiguration management that is often performed manually. Also, changesin the configuration or deployment of IVR services within extant IVRarchitectures often require a full or partial suspension of serviceduring any reconfiguration or deployment effort.

Further, cost structures and provisioning algorithms that provision thecapabilities of such a centralized voice services platform make itvirtually impossible to ensure that a caller can always access thesystem when the system is under heavy usage. If the system wereconfigured with such a large number of telephone line ports that allpotential callers would always be connected to access contrasting typesof voice services, with different and overlapping peak utilizationhours, the cost of maintaining all the hardware and software elementswould be prohibitive. Instead, such centralized voice services platformsare configured with a reasonable number of telephone ports that resultin a cost-effective operating structure. The operator of the system mustaccept that callers may sometimes be refused access. Also, system usersmust accept that they will not receive an “always on” service.

Prior art centralized voice services platforms also tend to be“operator-centric.” In other words, multiple different service providersprovide call-in voice services platforms, but each service providerusually maintains their own separate platform. If the user has called into a first company's voice services platform, he would be unable toaccess the voice services of a second company's platform. In order toaccess the second company's voice services platform, the user mustterminate his call to the first company, and then place a new call tothe second company's platform. Thus, obtaining access to multipledifferent IVR systems offered by different companies is not convenient.

In addition to the above-described drawbacks of the currentarchitecture, the shared nature of the servers in a centralized voiceservices platform limits the ability of the system to providepersonalized voice applications to individual users. Similarly, thearchitecture of prior art IVR systems limit personalization even forgroups of users. Because of these factors, the prior art systems havelimitations on their ability to dynamically account for individual userpreferences or dynamically personalize actual voice applications on thefly. This is so because it becomes very hard for a centralized system tocorrelate the user with their access devices and environment, to therebyoptimize a voice application that is tuned specifically for anindividual user. Further, most centralized systems simply lackuser-specific data.

With the prior art voice services platforms, it was difficult to developefficient mechanisms for billing the users. Typically, the telephonecarrier employed by the user would bill the user for calls made to thevoice services platform. The amount of the charges could be determinedin many different ways. For instance, the telephone carrier could simplybill the user a flat rate for each call to the voice services platform.Alternatively, the telephone carrier could bill the user a per-minutecharge for being connected to the voice services platform. In stillother methods, the voice services platform could calculate user chargesand then inform the carrier about how much to bill the user. Regardlessof how the charges are calculated, it would still be necessary for thetelephony carrier to perform the billing, collect the money, and thenpay some amount to the voice service platform.

Prior art voice services platforms also had security issues. In manyinstances, it was difficult to verify the identity of a caller. If thevoice services platform was configured to give the user confidentialinformation, or the ability to transfer or spend money, security becomesan important consideration.

Typically, when a call is received at the voice services platform, theonly information the voice services platform has about the call is acaller ID number. Unfortunately, the caller ID number can be falsified.Thus, even that small amount of information could not be used as areliable means of identifying the caller. For these reasons, callersattempting to access sensitive information or services were usuallyasked to provide identifying data that could be compared to a databaseof security information. While this helps, it still does not guaranteethat the caller is the intended user, since the identifying data couldbe provided by anybody.

Some prior art voice services platforms were used to send audio messagesto users via their telephones. The central voice services platform wouldhave a pre-recorded audio message that needed to be played to multipleusers. The platform would call each of the users, and once connected toa user, would play the audio message. However, when it was necessary tocontact large numbers of users, it could take a considerable amount oftime to place all the calls. The number of simultaneous calls that canbe placed by the centralized voice services platform is obviouslylimited by the number telephone ports it has. Further, in someinstances, the PSTN was incapable of simultaneously connecting calls onall the available line ports connected to the voice services platform.In other words, the operators found that when they were trying to make alarge number of outgoing calls on substantially all of their outgoinglines, the PSTN sometimes could not simultaneously connect all of thecalls to the called parties. Further, when a voice services platform isdelivering audio messages in this fashion, they tie up all the telephoneport capacity, which prevents users from calling in to use the service.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 illustrates menus of an Interactive Voice Response System;

FIG. 2 illustrates elements of a system embodying the invention;

FIG. 3 illustrates elements of another system embodying the invention;

FIG. 4 illustrates elements of another system embodying the invention;

FIG. 5 illustrates a history of a user's interaction with a voiceapplication;

FIG. 6 illustrates another way of presenting a history of a user'sinteraction with a voice application;

FIG. 7 illustrates another way of presenting a history of a user'sinteraction with a voice application;

FIG. 8 illustrates a history of a user's interaction with a voiceapplication where the system asked for clarification of a user input;

FIG. 9 illustrates a history of a user's interaction with two separatevoice applications; and

FIG. 10 illustrates how a user could provide input to system operatorsregarding a voice application.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

The inventors have developed new systems and methods of deliveringvoice-based services to users which make use of some aspects of thebasic architecture illustrated in FIG. 2. A full description of thesystems and methods created by the inventors is provided in U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 11/514,116, which was filed on Sep. 1, 2006.

The systems and methods created by the inventors are intended to provideusers with speech and touch tone enabled Voice Applications foraccessing various services and for performing various functions. In thisrespect, the systems, devices and methods embodying the invention servesome of the same functions as prior art centralized voice servicesplatforms. The systems and methods can also be used to provide the sametype of call forwarding discussed above, but at a lower cost, and withgreater flexibility. In addition, the systems and methods created by theinventors make it possible to provide users with a whole host ofadditional call handling and call notification functions that would havebeen impossible with prior systems.

Unlike the prior art voice services platforms, systems and methodsembodying the invention utilize a highly distributed processingarchitecture to deliver the services. As will be explained below, theunderlying architecture and the distributed nature of systems andmethods embodying the invention allow the inventive systems to providethe same services as the prior art systems, but with better performance,at a significantly reduced cost, and with far fewer limitations. Inaddition, systems and methods embodying the invention avoid or solvemany of the drawbacks of the prior systems. Further, because of the waysystems and methods embodying the invention operate, they can providenew and additional services that could never have been provided by theprior art systems. Systems and methods embodying the invention alsoallow for much better personalization of delivered services, and theyallow existing services to be upgraded, improved, or furtherpersonalized much more easily than was possible with the prior artsystems.

Systems and methods embodying the invention are intended to deliver orprovide Voice Applications (hereinafter, “VAs”) for a user. Beforebeginning a discussion of systems and methods that embody the invention,we should start by discussing what a VA is, and what a VA can do for auser. Unfortunately, this is somewhat difficult, because VAs can take awide variety of different forms, and can accomplish a wide variety ofdifferent tasks.

A VA provides a user with the ability to use their natural voice, touchtone sequences or other forms of user input, to access and/or control anapplication, to obtain information, to perform a certain function, or toaccomplish other tasks. Although the majority of the followingdescription assumes that a user will interact with a system embodyingthe invention, at least in part, via speech, other forms of userinteraction fall within the scope and spirit of the invention. Forinstance, developing technologies that allow a user to make selectionsfrom visual menus via hand or eye movements could also for the basis ofa user interaction protocol. Likewise, developing technologies that areable to sense a user's brainwave patterns could form the basis of a userinteraction protocol. Thus, systems and methods embodying the inventionare not limited to speech-based user interfaces.

A VA could be specifically developed to utilize the benefits of speechrecognition-based input processing. For instance, a VA could bedeveloped to access, play and manipulate voice mail via speech commands.Alternatively, a VA could act as an extension or an enhancement oftraditional GUI-like applications to allow the traditional applicationsto be accessed and/or controlled by speech commands. For instance, a VAcould allow the user to call up specific e-mail messages on a displayvia spoken commands, and the user would then read the e-mail messages onthe display.

In some instances, a VA could act like one of the interactive voiceresponse systems that are accessible to users on prior art centralizedvoice services platforms. A VA could act in exactly the same way as aprior art IVR system to allow a user to obtain information or accomplishvarious functions using a speech enabled interface. However, because ofthe advantages of the new architecture, a system embodying the inventioncan perform voice applications that would have been impossible toperform on prior art centralized voice services platforms. Other VAscould perform a wide variety of other tasks. In most instances, the userwould be able to accomplish functions or obtain information by simplyspeaking voice commands.

With the above general description of a Voice Application (VA) asbackground, we will now provide an overview of systems and methodsembodying the invention. The following overview will make reference toFIG. 2, which depicts a high-level diagram of how a system embodying theinvention would be organized.

As shown in FIG. 2, preferred embodiments of the invention would makeuse of an optional telephone network 230 and a data network 220. Thetelephone network 230 could be a traditional PSTN, a VoIP system, apeer-to-peer telephone network, a cellular telephone network, or anyother network that allows a user to place and receive telephone calls.The data network 220 could be the Internet, or possibly a private orinternal local area network or intranet.

In some instances, users would only be physically coupled to a datanetwork, such as the Internet. In this case, the user's on-siteequipment could enable them to place VoIP telephone calls via the datanetwork. Such VoIP telephone calls might make use of the PSTN, or theentire call might be handled over the data network. Regardless, inpreferred embodiments, the user would be capable of simultaneouslymaintaining a telephone connection and sending and receiving data.

Systems embodying the invention, as shown in FIG. 2, will be referred toas having a Distributed Voice Application Execution System Architecture(hereinafter, a “DVAESA”). Thus, the term DVAESA refers to a system andmethod of providing voice application services in a distributed fashion,over a network, to a customer device. Such a system is closely managedby a centralized system to, among other things, ensure optimumperformance, availability and usability. In some of the descriptionswhich follow, there are references to “DVAES-enabled” equipment or localdevices/device. This means equipment and/or software which is configuredto act as a component of a DVAESA embodying the invention.

A user would utilize an audio interface device to access the DVEASA. Inthe embodiment shown in FIG. 2, a first user's audio interface 200comprises a microphone and speaker. A second user audio interface 201comprises a telephone. The telephone 201 is also connected to the sameuser local device 210 as the first user audio interface. A third user'saudio interface 202 could also comprise a telephone. This telephone 202could be a regular wired telephone, a wireless telephone or even acellular telephone. The DVAES-enabled devices may support multiple audiointerface devices, and the multiple devices could all be of the sametype, or multiple different types of user audio interfaces could all beconnected to the same local device.

Each user would also make use of a local DVAES-enabled device that wouldact to deliver or provide VAs to the user through the user's audiointerface. The local DVAES-enabled devices would include a voice browsercapable of performing voice applications that have been distributed overthe network, some of which may have speech recognition functions. Suchvoice applications could be pre-delivered to the local DVAES-enableddevice, or the voice applications could be fetched in real time. Suchvoice applications are personalized to the user and optimized for thedevice. In the embodiment shown in FIG. 2, each of the user localdevices 210, 212, 203 are coupled to the respective user audiointerfaces, and to the data network.

In some embodiments of the invention, a user audio device and aDVAES-enabled device could be integrated into a single electronicdevice. For instance, a PDA with cell phone capability could alsoincorporate all of the hardware and software elements necessary for thedevice to also act as the DVAES-enabled equipment. Thus, a single userdevice could function as both the DVAES-enabled equipment thatcommunicates with the network, and as the user audio interface. The userlocal device 203 shown in FIG. 2 is intended to illustrate this sort ofan embodiment.

Also, in FIG. 2, various lines connect each of the individual elements.These lines are only intended to represent a functional connectionbetween the two devices. These lines could represent hard-wiredconnections, wireless connections, infrared communications, or any othercommunications medium that allows the devices to interact. In someinstances the connections could be continuous, and in others theconnection could be intermittent. For instance, an audio interface and auser local device could be located within a user's vehicle. In such acase, the local device within the vehicle might only be connected to thenetwork through a cellular telephone network or through another type ofwireless network when such connectivity is required to provide a userwith services. In a similar embodiment, the local device in the user'svehicle might only link up to the network when the vehicle is parked atthe user's home, or some other location, where a wireless connection canbe implemented.

Also, the user audio interface 202 shown in FIG. 2 could be a cell phonethat is capable of interacting with the normal cellular telephonenetwork. However, the cellular telephone might also be capable ofinteracting with the user local device 212 via a wired or wirelessconnection. Further, the cellular telephone 202 might be configured suchthat it acts like a regular cellular telephone when the user is awayfrom home (and is not connected to the local device 212). But thecellular telephone might switch to a different operating mode when it isconnected to the local device 212 (when the user is at home), such thatall incoming calls to that cell phone are initially received andprocessed by the local device 212. The DVAESA also would include somenetwork-based elements. As shown in FIG. 2, the network-based elementscould include a VA rendering agent 240, a network storage device 242 anda system manager 244. Each of these network-based elements would beconnected to the data network.

Also, although they would not technically be considered a part of theDVAESA, there might also be some third party service providers 250, 252which are also connected to the data network, and/or to the telephonenetwork. As explained below, the VAs may enable the users to interactwith such third party service providers via the data and telephonenetworks.

When a DVAESA as shown in FIG. 2 is configured, VAs would be “rendered”by the VA rendering agent 240, the output of the rendering process wouldbe rendered VAs. These rendered VAs may be stored on the Network StorageDevice 242, or be distributed or delivered to a DVAES-enabled Device.“Rendering” refers to a process in which a generic VA is personalizedfor a particular user and/or one or more particular DVAES-Devices togenerate Rendered VAs. The system manager 244 could instruct the VArendering agent 240 to render a VA for a particular user, or suchrendering request could originate from the DVAES-enabled Device. TheDVAESA network data storage element 242 could be used to store genericVA, rendered VAs, or a wide variety of other data and resources (e.g.audio files, grammars etc).

As mentioned above, the VA rendering agent would personalize a genericVA during the rendering process. This could take into account personaltraits of the individual user, information about the configuration ofthe local device(s), or a wide variety of other things, as will beexplained in more detail below. The information used to personalize a VAduring the rendering process could be provided to the VA rendering agentat the time it is instructed to render the VA, or the VA rendering agentcould access the information from various data storage locationsavailable via the data network.

The user's local devices would typically be inexpensive computingdevices that are capable of running a voice browser and performingspeech recognition capable rendered VAs. Such devices are often referredto as embedded multimedia terminal adaptors (EMTAs) and optical embeddedmultimedia terminal adaptors (OEMTAs). In many instances, the localdevice would be physically present at the user's location, such as ahome or office. In other instances, however, the local device could be avirtual device that is capable of interacting with one or more useraudio interfaces. As mentioned above, the local devices may also storerendered VAs, and then act to perform the rendered VAs to the user'saudio interface. The user local device could be a customer premisedevice that is also used for some other function. For instance, thelocal device could be a cable modem or set-top box that is also used toconnect a television to a cable network, however, the device would alsobe configured to perform VAs for the user via the user's audiointerface.

In one simple embodiment of the invention, a local embedded device 212would be linked to a user's telephone 202. The local device 212 wouldalso be linked to the Internet 220 via a medium to high speedconnection, and possibly to the telephone network 230. The user couldspeak commands into the telephone 202, and those spoken commands wouldbe processed by the local device 212 to determine what the user isrequesting.

The processing and interpretation of a user's spoken commands could beentirely accomplished on the local device 212. In other embodiments, thelocal device might need to consult a speech recognition engine on aremote device, via the data network, to properly interpret a portion ofa spoken command that cannot be understood or interpreted by the localdevice. In still other embodiments, the user's spoken commands could beentirely processed and interpreted by a remote speech recognitionengine. For instance, a recording of the user's spoken commands could berelayed to a remote speech recognition engine, and the speechrecognition engine would then process the spoken commands and send databack the local device indicating what the user is commanding. Even thisprocess could be accomplished in real time such that the user is unawarethat the interpretation of his spoken commands is being accomplished ona remote device.

Because of the greater sophistication that is possible with a systemembodying the invention, if the local device does not understandsomething, it can often ask another question of the user to clarify thesituation. In addition, the local device can offer greatly expandedvocabulary and speech processing by enlisting the assistance of networkagents. For all these reasons, a consumer electronic device that iscoupled into the DVAES architecture can provide a much moresophisticated voice application than prior art devices which were notconnected to a network.

Once the spoken command has been interpreted, in some instances, thelocal device 212 may be able to satisfy the user's request. In otherinstances, the local device 212 might need to request information from aVA Rendering Agent 240 to satisfy the user's request. If that is thecase, the local device 212 would send a query over the data network 220to the VA Rendering Agent 240 for some type of content. The requestedcontent would be returned to the local device 212, and the local device212 would then provide the content to the user via the user's telephone202. In other instances, the local device may be able to query othernetwork-connected elements which are not a part of the DVAESArchitecture, and those other elements would return the requested datato the local device so that the data could be delivered to the user viathe audio interface.

Depending on the VA being performed, the functions that are performed inresponse to a user request may not involve playing audio information tothe user via the user's audio interface. For instance, the local devicecould be performing a VA relating to accessing e-mail. In this instance,a user's spoken request could cause the local device to act in a mannerthat ultimately results in the user's e-mail messages being shown on adisplay screen. In this instance, although the user makes use of aspeech-based interface to obtain information and/or perform a certainfunction, the ultimate result is not the playback of audio, but ratherdisplay of an e-mail message.

The end result of a user request could take many other forms, such asthe local device causing a certain action to be taken. For instance, theuser might speak a request that causes the user's home air conditioningsystem to be turned on. The list of possible actions that could beenabled by the local device is virtually endless. But the point is thatthe local device is able to provide a speech-enabled interface to theuser, via the audio interface, to allow the user to accomplish a task.

In another simple embodiment, the user might pick up his telephone 202and speak a request to be connected to another person's telephone. Avoice application performed on the local device would interpret theuser's spoken request. This could be done on the local device, or thevoice application could utilize remote assets to accomplish the speechrecognition. Some or all of the speech recognition could occur on theremote assets. The voice application would then take steps to place atelephone call to the person identified by the user. This might involveconnecting the user via the telephone network 230, or connecting theuser to the requested party via a VoIP call placed over the data network220.

It is also worth noting that when a user is connected to the DVAESarchitecture, the VAs provided by the system can completely replace thedial tone that people have come to associate with their telephones. Themoment that a user picks up his telephone, he will be launched directlyinto a voice application that is provided by the system. In the past,this may have been technically possible, but it was always accomplishedby making use of the traditional phone system. For instance, one of theprior art centralized voice services platforms would have been capableof ensuring that the moment a user lifts his telephone, that user wasimmediately connected to a central voice services platform that wouldguide the remainder of the user's experience. But this was alwaysaccomplished by establishing an immediate voice channel between theuser's telephone and the central voice services platform. And toaccomplish that, it was necessary to involve the telephone carrier thatwould link the user's telephone to the voice services platform. Incontrast, with the DVAES architecture, one no longer needs to make anyuse of the telephone carriers to provide this sort of a service. And, asnoted above, the user can still be easily connected to the regulartelephone network if he needs to place a call.

In the same vein, in the past, whenever a user wanted to have a thirdparty service answer his telephone calls, as in traditional voice mailsystems, it was necessary to involve the carrier in routing such callsto a third party service. Now, when a call is made to the user'stelephone, the DVAES architecture makes it possible to answer the call,and take voice mail recordings, without any further involvement of thecarrier. Here again, the DVAES architecture makes it possible toeliminate the services of the telephone carrier.

In both the examples outlined above, the involvement of the carriernecessarily increased the cost of providing the voice services. Becausethe carrier can be eliminated, the same sorts of voice services can beprovided to a user for a significantly reduced cost. And, as explainedbelow, the services can be delivered with greater performance and withnew and better features.

In some embodiments, rendered Voice Application processing is performedon the local device and the associated the voice recognition functionsmay also be performed on the local device. For this reason, there is noneed to establish a dedicated duplex audio link with a remote high endcomputer. Also, even in those instances where a portion of the voiceapplication processing is performed by a remote device, and/or whereprocessing and interpretation of spoken commands is processed by aremote device, the communications necessary to accomplish these actionscan be made via data packets that traverse a data network. Thus, hereagain, there is no need to establish a dedicated duplex audio link witha remote high end computer to provide the requested services.

Also, because the local embedded device is coupled to a data networksuch as the Internet, it can rapidly obtain Rendered Voice Applicationsand associated data from various remote sources in order to satisfy userrequests. For these reasons, the simple embedded local device allows oneto provide the user with speech recognition enabled Voice Applicationswithout the need to create and maintain a high end speech serviceplatform with multiple telephone line access equipment.

As noted above, the local device could also use the network to obtainaccess to various other physical elements to effect certain physicalactions, such as with the home air conditioner example given above. Inthis context, the other physical elements could be connected to thenetwork, or the local device could have a local connection to physicalelements that are also located on the user's premises. For instance, thelocal device could have a hard-wired or wireless connection to manydifferent elements in a user's home or office that allow the localdevice to control operations of the physical elements. In otherembodiments, the piece of physical equipment could act as the localdevice itself.

One obvious advantage of a DVAESA over prior art voice service platformsis that a DVAESA embodying the invention can provide VAs to userswithout any involvement of a PSTN, VoIP, Peer-Peer carrier. The instantthe user picks up his telephone handset, he will be interacting with theDVAESA, not the telephone system. A large number of VAs could beaccomplished without ever involving a telephone carrier as the VoiceApplication is delivered and provided on the local device. Because theuser can directly access the DVAESA without making a telephone call, theoperator of the DVAESA will not need to pay a telephone carrier in orderto provide the service to users.

As noted above, if the user wishes to place a telephone call, this canbe easily accomplished. But there is no need to use a telephone carrieras an intermediary between the user and the DVAESA. This has multiplepositive benefits.

Also, for a multitude of different reasons, a DVAESA will be lessexpensive to deploy and operate than the prior art central voiceservices platforms. To begin with, because the DVAESA can provideservices to users without a telephone link, the DVEASA operator nolonger need to purchase and maintain multiple telephone line ports intothe system.

Also, the types of equipment used by the DVAESA are inherently lessexpensive to deploy and manage than the equipment used in a centralvoice services platform. A DVAESA embodying the invention usesrelatively inexpensive network appliances that can be located anywhere,and that can be deliberately distributed over a wide area to enhancereliability of the system. In contrast, a central voice servicesplatform requires expensive and specialized telecom equipment liketelecom switches and IVR servers. The central voice services platformsalso require more intensive management and provisioning than a DVAESA,and this management must be provided by highly skilled personnel as mostof the equipment used is highly proprietary in nature. In contrast, theDVAESA is largely managed by an automated management system.

A prior art central voice services platform is only able tosimultaneously service a limited number of users As noted above, in theprior art central voice services platforms, a dedicated voice link, viaa telephone call, is maintained for each connected user. Once all linesare connected to users, no additional users are able to access thesystem. Hence the maximum number of simultaneous users that can besupported at any given time is equal to the lesser of the number ofaccess lines or the number of associated telephony/IVR ports an operatormaintains.

In contrast, a DVAESA embodying the invention has a very high limit onthe number of users that can be simultaneously serviced. In a DVAESAembodying the invention, the moment a customer picks up his telephone hewill be connected to the system. Thus, a DVAESA embodying the inventionis “always on.” Also, much of the interactions between the user and thesystem are handled directly by the local device on the customerpremises. If the local device cannot immediately service a user request,and additional information is needed, the local device may make asynchronous or asynchronous request over the Internet. Typically, theinformation will be quite rapidly returned and played to the user. Thus,even if there is a small delay, the user is nevertheless still connectedthe voice services system.

With the DVAESA model, the same number of server assets can handle datarequests from a much larger number of users as compared to the prior artcentral voice services platform. This is also another reason why aDVAESA is less expensive to deploy and maintain than a prior art centralvoice services platform.

In addition to being easier and less expensive to deploy and maintain, aDVAESA embodying the invention can also scale up much more quickly andat a lower cost as new users are added to the system. To begin with,because the DVAESA does not require dedicated telephone lines tooperate, there is no cost associated with adding additional telephoneports to the system to accommodate additional users. Likewise, as newusers are added, there are no new additional telecommunications expensesfor more connect time or access. In addition, for the reasons notedabove, the equipment used by the system is far less expensive than theequipment used in a central voice services platform to service the samenumber of users. Thus, adding any new equipment and users is lessexpensive for a DVAESA. Moreover, because it requires less equipment toservice the same number of users in a DVAESA, there is much lessequipment to purchase and maintain for each additional 1000 users.

A DVAESA embodying the invention is inherently more reliable than aprior art central voice services platform. Because the assets of a priorart system are typically located in a few physical locations, and aretied to physical phone lines, power outages and other physical problemsare more likely to prevent users from being able to use the system. Incontrast, a DVAESA can have its equipment distributed over a much widerarea to reduce these problems. The points of a failure of a DVAESA canbe highly localized and it is very cost effective to replicate DVAESAequipment.

Moreover, the underlying nature of the DVAESA makes it easy to connectmultiple redundant servers to the network, so than in the event one ormore assets fail, redundant assets can step in to take over thefunctions of the failed equipment. This was difficult to do in prior artcentral voice services platforms, and even when it was possible toprovide redundant capabilities, the cost of providing the redundantequipment was much higher than with a DVAESA.

In addition, a prior art central voice service platform needs atelephone carrier to provide access to the users. If the telephonecarrier has a service outage, the prior art system cannot function. Incontrast, a DVAESA does not have any reliance on a telephone carrier.

The only network required to provide the DVAESA is the data network likethe Internet. The user in most cases will not experience an interruptionto access to the voice services of a DVAESA, even if there is an outagethat disables the local device's access to the Internet. The localdevice could potentially perform some of the applications withoutconnecting to the network. This indicates that for some VoiceApplications in the DVAESA, it may be sufficient for the local device tohave intermittent access to the Internet.

The architecture of a DVAESA makes it inherently able to deliver certaintypes of VAs with vastly improved performance. To use one concreteexample, as noted above, when a central voice services application isattempting to deliver the same audio message to large number of users,the central voice services application must place a telephone call toeach user, using a dedicated phone line, and deliver the message.Because the central voice services platform only has a limited number ofoutgoing lines, it can take a significant amount of time to place allthose calls.

In contrast, in a DVAESA embodying the invention, it is not necessary toplace any telephone calls to deliver the audio message to users.Instead, a server which is part of the system can push instructions toplay the audio message, and the message itself (the message could bestored in advance of when the event to deliver the message occurs), toeach of the local devices, and the local devices can then play themessages for each individual user. In variations on this theme, theserver might only send the instruction to play the message, along with areference to where a copy of the audio message is stored. Each localdevice could then download a copy of the message from the indicatedlocation and play it for the user. Regardless, it would be possible forthe DVAESA architecture to deliver the audio message to all the users ina small fraction of the time that it would take the prior art centralvoice services platform to accomplish the job.

Moreover, as also explained above, while the prior art central voiceservices platform is making calls to deliver audio messages to aplurality of users, it is tying up it's phone lines, and thus it'scapacity to allow users to call in for services. In contrast, when aDVAESA is delivering audio messages to a plurality of users, the usersare still able to access their voice services for other purposes.

A DVAESA embodying the invention also makes it possible to deliver manynew voice applications and services that could never have been providedby the prior art central voice services platform. In most cases, it isthe underlying differences in the architecture of a DVAESA embodying theinvention, as compared to the prior art voice services platforms, whichmake these new services possible.

For example, a user could configure a voice application to runconstantly in the background on a local device, and then take a certainaction upon the occurrence of a specified event. So, for instance, theuser could set up a voice application to break into an existingtelephone conversation to notify him if a particular stock's tradingprice crosses a threshold. In this scenario, the voice application wouldperiodically check the stock price. If the threshold is crossed, thevoice application could cause any existing telephone call that the useris on to be temporarily suspended, and the voice application would thenplay the notification. The voice application could then return thecaller to his call. This sort of a voice application would also be verycomplicated to provide under the prior art central voice servicesplatform.

The graceful integration of advertising messages is another example ofhow a DVAESA embodying the invention can provide services that wereimpossible to provide with prior art central voice service platforms. Asan example, if the user lifted the telephone and spoke a command thatasked for options about ordering a pizza, the system could respond witha prompt that said, “to be connected to Pizza Shop A, say one; to beconnected to Pizza Shop B, say two. By the way, Pizza Shop A is having atwo for one special today.” Thus, the advertising message could begracefully incorporated into the played response. Also, the advertisingmessage would be highly context relevant, which would make it moreinteresting to advertisers. Thus, advertising revenue could be collectedby the operator of the DVAESA system.

A DVAESA embodying the invention could also be used to rapidly collectdata from a very large number of users in ways that would have beenimpossible with prior art central voice services platforms. In thisexample, assume that a television program is currently airing, andduring the program, viewers are invited to vote on a particular issue.In prior art systems, the users would typically place a telephone callto a central voice services platform and make a voice vote. However, asnoted earlier, prior art voice services platforms are only able to talkto a limited number of callers at the same time because the callers mustbe connected by dedicated phone lines.

In a DVAESA embodying the invention, the user might be able to pick upthe phone and say, “I want to vote on issue X.” The system would alreadyknow that viewers of a television program had been invited to place avote, so the system could immediately take the user's voice vote. Thesystem could also tabulate the votes from all users making similar voicevotes, and then provide the voting results to the television showproducers in real time. Because so little actual information is beingexchanged, and the exchanges are made over the Internet, thousands, andperhaps even millions of votes could be received and tabulated in a veryshort period of time. This would have been impossible with prior artcentral voice services platforms. Furthermore, a DVAES can distribute afully featured voice application that not only plays the message, butfurther solicits feedback from the user, optionally tailors theinteraction with the user, and may record any user feedback orresponses. Furthermore, if the producers of the television show werewilling to pay a fee to the operator of the DVAESA, the system could beconfigured such that as soon as viewers are invited to cast a vote, andfor the duration of the voting period, anytime that a user of the DVAESApicks up his telephone to access the system, the system would firstrespond with the question, “would you like to vote on issue X?” Thiswould be yet another way to derive advertising or promotional revenuefrom the DVAESA.

There are countless other ways to exploit the architecture of a DVAESAembodying the invention to accomplish tasks and to perform VAs thatwould have been impossible using the prior art central voice servicesplatforms. The above examples are merely illustrative.

A DVAESA embodying the invention also allows for much greaterpersonalization of the voice applications themselves than was possiblewith prior art central voice services platforms. In addition, thearchitecture allows the users themselves to control many aspects of thispersonalization.

To begin with, as explained above, in a DVAESA a VA Rendering Agent isresponsible for customizing voice applications, and then delivering thecustomized voice applications to the local devices at the customersites. Thus, the basic architecture assumes that each user will receiveand run personalized versions of voice applications. This differencealone makes it much, much easier to provide users with personalizedvoice applications than prior art central voice services platforms.

The VA Rendering Agent could personalize a voice application to takeinto account many different things. For instance, the VA Rendering Agentcould access a database of user personal information to ensure that a VAtakes into account things like the user's name, his sex, age, home city,language and a variety of other personal information. The VA RenderingAgent could also access information about the capabilities of the localdevice at the customer's location that will be providing the VA, andpossibly also the type of audio interface that the user has connected tothe local device. The VA Rendering Agent could then ensure that thecustomized version of the VA that is provided to the user's local deviceis able to seamlessly and efficiently run on the local hardware andsoftware. The VA Rendering Agent could also take into account userpreferences that the user himself has specified. For instance, the VAcould be customized to play audio prompts with a certain type of voicespecified by the user.

Another important way that VAs could be personalized is by having theDVAESA track how the user is interacting with the system. For Example ifthe user has a certain type of accent or has a certain pattern of use orhas a certain type of background noise, the VA Rendering Agent couldtake these factors into account on an on going basis to ensure that thecustomized VAs that are sent to the user are tuned to the user. Thesystem might also note that whenever a three choice menu is played tothe user, the user always makes the third selection. In that case, theVA Rendering Agent might be directed to re-render the VA so that the VApresents the third option first, instead of last.

There are any number of other ways that VA's could be customized orpersonalized to take into account aspects of individual users. And thesecustomizations are easily and automatically accomplished by configuringthe VA Rendering Agents to automatically incorporate thesepersonalizations when delivering VAs for users. Because the DVAESA isconfigured so that each individual user may have his own versions ofVAs, preferably stored on his local devices cache, this personalizationis not difficult to accomplish. Such personalizations are complimentedby the continuous analytics process that is being performed on DVAESAdata. This data is collected during the on going functioning of thesystem and is provided by all DVAESA components. After collection, thedata is analyzed, and the results of the analysis are used tocontinuously tune and improve the functioning of the system on anindividual user-by-user basis.

A DVAESA also allows for better, more direct billing for delivery orusage of services. Because there is no telephone company acting as anintermediary, the operator of a DVAESA can directly bill users for useof the system. Also, the way the system is configured, the user canselect individual services, which are then provided to him by renderinga VA and loading it on the user's local equipment. Thus, the user cantailor his services to his liking, and the operator of the DVAESA has aneasy time tracking what services the user has. For all these reasons, itis much easier to bill the user for use of the services.

Another benefit that flows from the DVAESA model is the ability of auser to access services provided from two different DVAESA operators ona single piece of local equipment. As will be explained in more detailbelow, a first DVAESA operator could load a first set of VAs onto theuser's local equipment, and a second DVAESA operator could load a secondset of VAs onto the same piece of operator equipment. For instance, thefirst DVAESA operator could be one that provides the user with servicesrelated to his business, and the second DVAESA operator could be onethat provides the user with services relating to the user's personallife. There is no inherent conflict in both having two different sets ofVAs loaded onto the local device. And each DVAESA operator canthereafter maintain and update their respective VAs. Likewise, the usercan cause both sets of VAs to be loaded on a first device at his office,and a second device at his home. This allows the user to easily andimmediately access services from either operator, regardless of hispresent location. This sort of flexibility would also have beencompletely impossible in prior art central voice services platforms.

A DVAESA can also provide enhanced security measures compared to priorart central voice services platforms. For instance, because the DVAESAis interacting with the user via spoken commands, it would be possibleto verify the identity of a user via a voice print comparison.

In addition, the individual local devices can be identified with uniqueID numbers, and credentials verifying the identity and permissions ofusers and devices can all be created and stored in various locations onthe system. By using these unique identification numbers andcertification files, one can ensure that only authorized users canaccess sensitive information or perform sensitive functions.

Having now provided a broad overview of the how a system embodying theinvention would operate, and the inherent advantages of a DVAESA systemas compared to prior art systems, we will now turn to a slightly morespecific description of the main elements of a DVAESA embodying theinvention, with reference to FIG. 3. In doing so, we will introduce somenew definitions and terminology which will be used throughout theremainder of the detailed description.

A DVAESA would be configured to deploy and utilize one or more VoiceApplication Agents (hereinafter “VAAs”) which themselves enable thedelivery or performance of a VA through a local device that wouldtypically be located in a user's home or office. In some instances, aVAA may be wholly resident on a single local device. In other instances,the functions of a VAA may be split between multiple portions of theoverall system. Likewise, a single local device may only host one VAA.Alternatively, a single local device may host multiple VAAs. Thesevariations, and the flexibility they provide, will be discussed in moredetail below. The important concept is that a VAA is the agent that isresponsible for delivering or performing a VA for the user.

The network 2130 shown in FIG. 3 could be the Internet. However, in someinstances, the network 2130 could be a public or private local network,a WAN, or a Local Area Network. In most instances, however, the network2130 will be the Internet. Also, the network 2130 could also compriseportions of the PSTN, existing cellular telephone networks, cabletelevision networks, satellite networks, or any other system that allowsdata to be communicated between connected assets.

The devices 2110 and 2120 appearing in FIG. 3 would be the localembedded devices that are typically located at a user's home or office.As shown in FIG. 3, in some instances, a local device 2110 could simplybe connected to the user's existing telephone. In other instances, thelocal device could be coupled to a speaker 2007 and microphone 2009 sothat the local device can play audio to the user, and receive spokencommands from the user. In still other embodiments, the local device maybe a standalone telephone, or be included as part of a cellulartelephone, a computing device with wireless access, a PDA thatincorporates a cellular telephone, or some other type of mobile devicethat has access to a data network.

A system embodying the invention also includes components that delivervoice applications, data and other forms of content to the localdevices. These components could include one or more Voice ApplicationServices Systems (hereinafter VASSs). In the system depicted in FIG. 3,there are two VASSs 2140 and 2150. A system embodying the inventioncould have only a single VASS, or could have multiple VASSs.

One of the primary functions of a VASS is to render VAs and to thenprovide VA components to VAAs. In preferred embodiments, a VASS wouldprovide customized VAs components to VAAs, upon demand, so that the VAAscan perform the customized VAs components for the user. The VASSs couldpersonalize generic VAs based on known individual user characteristics,characteristics of the environment in which the VA components will beperformed, information about how a user has previously interacted withthe system, and a wide variety factors. The distribution of thepersonalized VA components to the VAAs could also be accomplished inmultiple different ways.

A system embodying the invention may also include one or more ContentDistribution Services (hereinafter a “CDSs”). This is an optionalcomponent that basically serves as a data storage and contentdistribution facility. If a system embodying the invention includes oneor more CDSs, the CDSs would typically provide network-based caching ofcontent, such as VA components, configurations, DVAESA components, andother shared or frequently used content. The CDSs would be deployedthroughout the network to help reduce network traffic latency, whichbecomes particularly noticeable in any speech interaction system.

The DVAESA components could broadly be identified as a Distributed VoiceApplication Execution System (hereinafter, a “DVAES”), and a DistributedVoice Application Management System (hereinafter, a “DVAMS”) A DVAEScomprises at least a VASS, one or more VAAs, and the underlying hardwareand software platforms.

The system shown in FIG. 3 includes a DVAMS. The DVAMS handles a widevariety of management functions which include registering users,specific items of hardware and other DVAES components, directing therendering, caching, distribution and updating of VAs components,organizing and optimizing the performance of system assets, and multipleother functions. The DVAMS may also include an interface that allows anindividual user to customize how the system will interact with him, andwhat products and services the user wishes to use. The DVAMS would alsoprovide an interface that allows system operators to manually controlvarious aspects of the system.

With this as background, we will now turn to a more detailed descriptionof how the architecture discussed above can be used to provide enhancedand new services to a user. FIG. 4 illustrates elements of a system thatcould perform a voice application for a user, and which could guide theuser by displaying a history of his interaction with the voiceapplication. FIG. 5 is an illustration of a user's actual interactionwith a voice application.

For purposes of explanation, the history presented in FIG. 5 is anillustration of a user's interaction with a voice application that ismodeled after the interactive voice response system illustrated in FIG.1, which is for a financial services institution. The voice applicationgiving rise to the history in FIG. 5, and the history itself are onlyintended to be illustrative of the concepts underlying the invention.Thus, the voice application and the history illustrated here should inno way be considered limiting.

In a system and method embodying the invention, as a user interacts witha voice application, a history of the interaction is presented to theuser on a display screen visible to the user. For instance, the historyillustrated in FIG. 5 might be presented to the user on a display screen202 coupled to a user's local device 210. Alternatively, the historyshown in FIG. 4 might be presented to the user on a display screen of amobile computing device 206. In some instances, the mobile computingdevice 206 could act as a local device.

In systems and methods embodying the invention, each time that audio isplayed to the user, a summary of the audio, or a complete transcription,would be added to the displayed history. Each time that the user makes aselection or provides input in response to a query from a voiceapplication, the user's response or input would be added to the history.In some instances, the user might spontaneously issue a command. Inother words, there may be times when the user speaks or issues acommand, and the input is not in direct response to a query from thevoice application. In some instances, these commands would also bepresented in the history.

The history shown in FIG. 5 is a substantially complete history of aninteraction with a voice application modeled after the IVR systemillustrated in FIG. 1. This history shows how the user made use of thesystem to transfer money from one account to the next. Thus, the historyindicates that the transaction is substantially complete. However, oneshould note that the history would have been compiled over a period oftime as the user interacts with the system. Each time a new menu orquery is played to the user, it would immediately be added to thehistory. And each time the user provides a response, a transcription orsummary of the response would be immediately added to the history.

Presenting the interaction history in this fashion is intended to aidthe user in interacting with the voice application. And as will beexplained in more detail below, the user may be able to use a pointingdevice and additional input devices such as keyboards to interact withthe voice application, in addition to simply speaking responses. Thus,the user will have a multimodal way of interacting with the voiceapplication. And this multimodal interaction will be based on thedisplayed history of the interaction.

To begin with, the history could assist the user in determining exactlywhere he is in the hierarchy of a voice application. Also, by reviewingthe presented history, the user could quickly and easily verify theresponses and input that he has provided as the voice application hasprogressed. If the system's interpretation of a user's spoken responseis presented on the screen, the user may be able to immediatelydetermine that the system has mis-interpreted a spoken input. At whichpoint, the user may be able to repeat the spoken input, or type in thecorrect input. This could help the user in navigating through the systemand making use of the system.

Also, the system might identify and display multiple potentialinterpretations of a user's spoken input, and the potentialinterpretations could be shown in the interaction history in a rankedorder. FIG. 8 illustrates this sort of situation. As shown in FIG. 8,when the user provided input in response to the voice application askingwhich account the user wished to deal with, the system was unable tointerpret the user's spoken response with a sufficient degree toconfidence to proceed. For this reason, the voice application then asksthe user to clarify his response. To aid in a quick selection, the voiceapplication has presented the user with the two potential answers to thequery that appear to most closely match what the user said.

The system might order the choices presented to the user based on theinterpretation of the user's original spoken input, with the most likelyanswer appearing first. Also, the context of the question that was posedto the user might also be a factor in the order in which the choices arepresented.

At this point, the user could speak the words “checking account” toconfirm that this was his selection. Alternatively, the user couldinstead point to the checking account option presented on theinteraction history on the display screen and select this option. Thus,the user has an option about how he response to the request forclarification.

Moreover, if the system displays a ranked list of potentialinterpretations of a user's spoken input, and the user selects apotential interpretation that is not the first one on the list, thisinformation could be used to tune the system to the individualcharacteristics of the particular user, which could improve later speechrecognition results and later interactions with the system.

Any time that the voice application prompts the user for input, atranscription or summary of the audio played to the user willimmediately appear on the interaction history. They user could have theoption of speaking his response, or selecting a menu option on thedisplayed history with a pointing device. In still other instances, theuser could provide text or numerical input by typing on a keyboardconnected to the user's local device that is performing the voiceapplication. Thus, the displayed interaction history helps to provide amultimodal way for the user to interact with a voice application.

In addition to simply displaying the history of the interaction, theuser might also be able to select certain items on the display screen togo backwards through the menus, and to provide a different response toone of the menus.

For instance, and with reference to FIG. 5, assume the user hasprogressed through the voice application to the point where he is beingplayed a summary of his requested transfer amount, and the system isasking if he wants to proceed with the transfer. And assume that afterhearing the summary, the user wants to change the amount of money thatis to be transferred. If this was a typical voice application, the userwould have to go backward through several previous menus to get to thepoint where he can enter in a different amount to be transferred.However, with a voice application embodying the invention, the user cansimply select the text box that says “ENTER AMOUNT,” to cause the systemto return to that point in the voice application. This might also causethe system to replay that audio prompt. The user could then immediatelyspeak an alternate amount. Or, as discussed above, the user could entera new amount with a keyboard.

Typically, the user would select one of the displayed text boxes using apointing device or by touching a touch-sensitive screen. However, inalternate embodiments, the selection could be made in different ways.For instance, the user might be able to select a text box for a priormenu through voice commands. Regardless, once the user has selected theprior menu asking the user to ENTER AMOUNT, the user could then enter adifferent amount, and proceed with the process. The process of enteringan alternate amount might be done by speaking the alternate amount.Alternatively, the user might be able to use an input device coupled tothe local device to enter the alternate amount.

In various embodiments, the history of the user's interaction with avoice application could be presented in different ways. For instance,the text boxes containing the menus and/or queries could contain averbatim copy of what is played to the user. In other embodiments, thetext boxes could contain a short summary of what is played to the user.

The text boxes that represent the choices made by the user, or the inputthat they have provided, might also be a verbatim copy of what the usersaid or did, or the text boxes could contain a summary or an expansionof what the user said or did. For instance, if the user was presentedwith a numbered list, and in response the user merely hit a numberbutton on a keypad, or spoke a number, the text box for that responsecould just be the selected number. Or, the text box could contain awritten summary of what that selection represented. Or, in still otherembodiments, the text box could contain the number and a writtendescription of what the selection represented.

In some embodiments, the text boxes containing the audio menus orqueries could be presented in one fashion, and the user's responsescould be presented in a different fashion. FIG. 6 illustrates the samebasic history of an interaction with voice application presented in FIG.5. However, in this history, audio prompts from the voice applicationare shown in rectangular boxes, user menu selections and yes/no answersare shown in oval boxes, and user provided text or numerical input isshown in double walled rectangular boxes. Illustrating the differenttypes of actions in different ways would help the user to quickly andeasily navigate through the interaction history.

FIG. 6 also shows that audio played by the system could be shown on oneside of the display screen, whereas user input could be shown on theother side of the display screen. This might also allow the user toquickly and easily distinguish between audio played by a voiceapplication, and input provided by the user.

In other embodiments, instead of showing different types of actions indifferent shaped boxes, the different types of actions could be shown indifferent colors. In still other embodiments, different types of actionscould be shown in both different shaped boxes, and in different colors,and they could be located on different sides of the screen. In fact, anysort of iconic representations could be used to distinguish systemgenerated content from user provided input.

Moreover, the use of text boxes is only an example of how the historycould be displayed. In other embodiments, the menus and queries and theuser's responses could be presented in various other fashions. Forinstance, FIG. 7 illustrates a portion of the same voice applicationinteraction history as illustrated in FIGS. 5 and 6, but the steps areshown in a different fashion. In this history, each of the menu choicesof audio menus are clearly laid out as separate choices, and arrowedlines clearly show which election the user made. The arrowed line forthe user's selection leads down to the next audio prompt that wasplayed. Also, audio prompts are in ovals, menu selections are shown inrectangles, and user input is shown in double walled rectangles.

FIG. 7 also illustrates that a display screen presenting a history of avoice application interaction could include a scroll bar 702 thatindicates where in an entire history the currently visible portion ofthe history appears in the full history. The user might be able to movethe scroll bar to cause the display screen to display different portionsof the total history.

FIG. 7 also illustrates that the display presented to the user couldinclude function buttons that can be selected by the user with apointing device. Button 703 could be pressed to send a copy of adisplayed interaction to another user, as is discussed more fully below.Pressing the replay button 704 could cause the complete history to dateof the interaction to be played to the user. This would involve playingeach of the voice application audio prompts, followed by the user'sresponses.

FIG. 7 also illustrates a comment button that a user could push to openup a dialog box which the user could use to enter comments on the voiceapplication that will be reviewed by personnel responsible for providingthe voice application. For instance, if a user believes that anothermenu choice should be added to a particular menu of a voice application,the user could push the comment button and then leave either textual oraudio comments and feedback to the providers of the voice application.

FIG. 10 illustrates another way in which a user could leave comments forpersonnel responsible for maintaining and updating a voice application.In this embodiment, a user could place the cursor controlled by apointing device over one of the displayed menus, and then “right click”on the displayed menu. This would cause the system to open a menu box1002. The user could then select one of the options in the menu box 1002to provide input to system personnel.

The foregoing examples are only intended to be illustrative. The historyof an IVR interaction could be presented in many different ways,including many ways which are not illustrated herein.

A user may be able to select the format in which an IVR history ispresented. Thus, a first user may prefer to see an IVR history asillustrated in FIG. 5, whereas a second user may wish to see an IVRhistory as illustrated in FIG. 6 or 7. The user's preferences for howthey wish to see an IVR history presented could be stored by the systemso that each time a history is presented to the user, it is presented inthe preferred format. Also, a user might wish to see some types of IVRhistories in one format, and other types of IVR histories in otherformats. Here again, the system would store the user's preferences andthe system would consult the user's preferences before displaying such ahistory.

Because of the way that a system embodying the invention operates, itmay be possible for a user who is interacting with a first voiceapplication to speak a keyword or command to immediately jump to adifferent voice application. If this occurs while the system isdisplaying a history of the interaction with the voice application, itmight cause one history to be closed, and it might open up anotherhistory.

This concept is illustrated in FIG. 9. As shown in this Figure, the userinteracts with a financial services voice application until he hasobtain a balance in his checking account. Once the voice application hasprovided him with the balance, the user simply speaks the keyword“WEATHER,” and the system jumps the user over to a new voice applicationwhich provides weather information.

When the user speaks the keyword “WEATHER,” that may be the last entryin the interaction history for the financial services voice application.The boxes around the two different voice applications show that thesystem has closed one history and opened another one.

An interaction history as explained above could be provided for newlydeveloped voice applications. Or, a system embodying the invention mightbe capable of displaying such a history for pre-existing IVR systems.

For instance, if a third party IVR system is accessed by a user, and thethird party IVR system does not presently have the ability to display ahistory of the interactions with the user, the system could neverthelessprovide this capability. The user would indicate that he wants to have ahistory of the interactions displayed, and the local device could causethe display on a screen visible to the user. The local device 210 wouldalready be capable of interpreting the user's spoken responses and keyinputs. And the local device could transcribe the audio menus played tothe user by a third party IVR system using the same type of speechrecognition functions. As explained above, although the speechrecognition functions of the local device 210 might not be complex, thelocal device 210 could also enlist the aid of a more powerful remotespeech recognition service 250 to transcribe audio menus that are playedto the user.

In situations where the system provides a history of an IVR session fora third party IVR system, it might be impossible to include the abilityto select a text box from a previous menu or input to thereby gobackwards and provide alternate input. However, the user would still beaided in using the third party IVR system by a visible history.

A user might also be able to store or record a history of a session witha voice application. And in this instance, the user might be able tocall back up the history of the session, and then select one of the textboxes to immediately launch back into the voice application system atthe selected point. Thus, the user could avoid having to start at thebeginning of a detailed voice application in order to provide adifferent answer to just one question. Instead, the user could startpart way through the history, and all the answers that the user providedthe first time through the history up to the selected point wouldalready be present. Such histories could be stored against user-definedfilenames to make retrieval of the histories easier for the user.

Users might also be able to send a copy of a saved history to anotheruser via e-mail. This could be helpful if a first user wants to show asecond user how he navigated through a particular voice application.Moreover, the second user might be able to utilize the forwarded historyto interact with the same voice application in the same way.

For instance, if a first user utilized a voice application to purchasetickets to a concert, the first user could forward a recorded history ofthe interactions with the voice application to a second user. The seconduser might be able to utilize the forwarded history to go back to thesame voice application and also purchase tickets to the same concert. Inthis context, the user might be able to jump into the voice applicationhistory at the point where the user is requested to provide a name andcredit card information. Operating in this fashion would eliminate theneed for the second user to actually go through all the motions oflistening to prompts and making selections up to that point in the voiceapplication. This would also ensure that the same answers are given upuntil the point where the second user decides to break into the voiceapplication and start providing alternate answers.

Any reference in this specification to “one embodiment,” “anembodiment,” “example embodiment,” etc., means that a particularfeature, structure, or characteristic described in connection with theembodiment is included in at least one embodiment of the invention. Theappearances of such phrases in various places in the specification arenot necessarily all referring to the same embodiment. Further, when aparticular feature, structure, or characteristic is described inconnection with any embodiment, it is submitted that it is within thepurview of one skilled in the art to effect such feature, structure, orcharacteristic in connection with other ones of the embodiments.

Although the invention has been described with reference to a number ofillustrative embodiments thereof, it should be understood that numerousother modifications and embodiments can be devised by those skilled inthe art that will fall within the spirit and scope of the principles ofthis disclosure. More particularly, reasonable variations andmodifications are possible in the component parts and/or arrangements ofthe subject combination within the scope of the foregoing disclosure,the drawings and the appended claims without departing from the spiritof the invention. In addition to variations and modifications in thecomponent parts and/or arrangements, alternative uses will also beapparent to those skilled in the art.

1. A method of displaying a history of an interactive voice response(IVR) session, comprising: recording audio prompts played to a user by avoice application; recording a user's responses to audio prompts from avoice application; and displaying a history of the audio prompts and theuser responses, wherein each time that a new audio prompt is played to auser, the prompt added to the history, and wherein each time that a usermakes a response, the response is added to the history.